Saturday, December 15, 2007

Gary sent in his blue Curtlo, which is almost light enough to make it into both +1lap galleries.

Here is the skinny:

Steel frame – True Temper S3 tubing; 3.4# for the frame.

Alpha Q fork

Campagnolo Chorus derailleurs and shifters

Cane Creek SCX-5 Brakes

One Salsa Crosstop lever – Rear Brake

Bontrager Race X-Lite tubular wheels with Tufo T30 Pro tires

12-25 Cassette, 39/46 rings on Chorus cranks

SPD Pedals

Ritchey WCS stem, bar and seatpost

San Marco Era saddle

Total bike is 18.7# with the tubular wheels. Doug built it up with curved seat stays, and it handles and rides like a dream! For those that believe that a ‘Cross bike has to be ultra stiff, I have proof otherwise. The flex in the rear allows the bike to hook up better in rough terrain, and I have less fatigue. The bike still sprints well, too.

If you have a handmade cyclocross bike or one under 18 pounds email it to me at plusonelap at gmail dot com

Monday, December 03, 2007

Recently, I stumbled upon a non-profit organization located here in Portland called Bikes To Rwanda (BTR). BTR strives to make bikes available to coffee farmers in Rwanda so that they can transport their raw coffee beans to the market. These are folks who make less in a year than most of us make in a day: a coffee farmer who has 5 kids and a wife barely supports his family on around $160 a year.

So, recently these coffee farmers were given some pretty sick coffee bikes (see above). They are the ultimate hauling rigs. What they desperately need though, is tools.

We all know bikes break, now imagine there is no local bike shop, no Performance Bike, no internet to order new tools from.

After talking with the Executive Director of BTR, Plus One Lap is starting a tool donation drive. Find all of the tools you dont really need (how many 5mm allen wrenches do you really need anyway?) and mail them to:

Plus One Lap Tool Drive4820 SW Barbur Blvd #15Portland OR 97239

All of your tools will be given directly to the BTR by myself. I found 3 allen sets sitting in my cupboard in addition to the 2 sets which are my "everyday" ones. I am also donating 2 chain breakers, some pliers and some loose allen tools.

If you don't have tools sitting around to donate, run down to your local Harbor Freight and pick some up and mail them in.

These farmers really need things like:metric allen toolstire leversadjustable wrenchespliershand pumpsand any other basic tool you think someone would need to work on their bike.

I'm asking all the +1lap readers to dig to the bottom of your tool box and pull out some tools that these people will cherish. I know we can pull together and amass a pretty large donation to give to the BTR. They will handle it from there to get these tools to the coffee farmers in Rwanda.